Home Selling Tips

Presentation

The presentation is everything! Home buyers are attracted to clean, spacious and attractive houses. Your goal is to dazzle buyers. Brighten up the house and remove all clutter from counter tops, tables, and rooms.

Scrub down your house from top to bottom. Make it sparkle. Simple aesthetic improvements such as trimming trees, planting flowers, fixing squeaking steps, broken tiles, shampooing rugs and even repainting a faded bedroom will greatly enhance the appeal of your house.

Also, make sure your house smells good. That's right, clean out the cat box and light mildly scented candles. Ask yourself: If you were buying this home what would you want to see? The goal is to show a home which looks good, maximizes space and attracts as many buyers -- and as much demand -- as possible!

Improvements

The general rule in real estate is that buyers seek the least expensive home in the best neighborhood they can afford. In terms of improvements, this means you want a home that fits in the neighborhood but is not over-improved.

For example, if most homes in your neighborhood have three bedrooms, two baths and 2,500 sq. ft. of finished space, a property with five bedrooms, more baths and far more space would likely be priced much higher and likely be more difficult to sell.

Improvements should be made so that the property shows well, is consistent with the neighborhood and does not involve capital investments, the cost of which cannot be recovered from the sale.

Furthermore, improvements should reflect community preferences. Cosmetic improvements - paint, removing wallpaper and landscaping - help a home "show" better and often are good investments. Mechanical repairs - to ensure that all systems and appliances are in good working condition - are recommended to get a top price.

Clean and Declutter

We're seeing encouraging signs of recovery in the housing market throughout Pennsylvania, according to recent statewide data. Pending sales are up more than 10 percent and closed sales are up 14 percent. National reports are talking about a gradual turnaround in the market.In other areas, many of you are seeing a reduction in inventory and fewer foreclosures. As I encourage more homeowners to list their houses, I like to remind them that in today's market, it's critical to show their houses in the best possible condition.

I don't know about you, but I find it frustrating when I'm showing a house and I find clothes tossed about in the bedrooms and wet towels on the floor of the bathroom.

It's tough to convince sellers that potential buyers make up their minds about a house from the moment we park at the curb. You and I know that — we're in the car with them and we hear them comment about the overgrown shrubbery and the peeling paint on the front porch the minute we stop the car.

I like to tell my sellers to de-clutter, clean like crazy and leave when their house is being shown. As they box up some of their belongings, they've not only got a jump on the packing process, but they really can see some of the things that might need to be repaired, updated or replaced.

Many of you may have read articles written for NAR by Barb Schwarz, the Creator of Home Staging®. She says cleaning the house is like detailing your car. It really needs to be that clean.

One of my favorite comments from Barb is, "The way you live in your home and the way you market and sell your house are two different things. Buyers only know what they see, not the way it's going to be. They don't have an imagination when it comes to buying their home."

It takes a skilled Realtor® to gently remind their sellers that some hard work needs to go into a property to get it ready to sell. It's probably easier to remind them that if they want to get the best price for their home, they're going to have to put some elbow grease into fixing up the house to have it show at its best against other properties on the market. Or as Barb says, "Longevity on the market means one thing... a reduction in price."